Web 2.0 and recent EduBlogsphere Reflections

"Let's share links to our blogs!" was the title of a new thread that I started in Classroom 2.0. I started the thread after I came across a fantastic blog that had been around for a few years. The blog had never come up in any of my previous searches. I figured that a few members of Classroom 2.0 blogged, and I thought it would be interesting to see what their blogs were about.

I asked if people could post a link to their blog, with a blurb about the focus of the blog, and also post a link to blogs that they'd recommend to others.

WOW!

I could live in EduBlogSphere everyday for the two weeks and still not get through all of the wonderful resources people have been posting, often quietly, in their blogs.

For me, my blogs serve as an on-line repository for videos, links, resources, and references. They contain lots of pictures and quite a few videoclips. The images help me quickly locate what I'm looking for, which helps, since I'm a visual thinker.

As I scanned through other blogs, I noticed that there were a good number of people who take the "show and tell" approach to blogging. I tend to gravitate towards this type of blog, since I can quickly grasp the message and content without having to do much verbal translation. Scrolling and scrolling through text isn't as fun or engaging. English is my first language, so I think this is a visual thing.

One unexpected outcome: I'm taking a class in visual communication and visualizaton, and I found several people through the blog-sharing discussion who share the same interests. I am a new member of the "Visualization in Education" group!

Another unexpected outcome: Someone is creating a directory of EduBlogs.

I also learned that there is quite a discussion about topics related to teacher access to the web, web filtering, banning of iPods (no podcasting or student creation of pod-casts?), amd school district policies that strongly discourage or forbid teachers from blogging or participating in on-line social networking groups, etc.